Conservation in Mexico - Monthly Update January 2008

By the middle of the Leather Back season we are really proud to report the collection of 16 nests so far, and we have already released our first offspring of this season. We were pleased with the survival rate of the buried hatchlings and on Monday 4th February we had the opportunity to release around 45 small leatherback turtles!

With our farewells and all our hopes placed upon them, these baby turtles must struggle in the open sea to fight for a chance to grow up and to be able again to carry on with the cycle of life.

The turtle project showed a dramatic improvement in this, our third year in the area, surpassing all the expectations with the outcomes from the last year.

We collected over 2100 nests, surpassing by far the last 5 years of the program in the area.

However the patrols carry on and it won't be long before we start spotting the gigantic Leather Backs!

Our Biodiversity Study is now due to be used by the new environmental impact study that is going to take place in the area. This study will support a new eco-tourism project that will help the local fishermen. It is our species catalogs and our data bases that will be used to support this study!

It is also interesting to mention that a new variety of projects will result as this kind of study takes time and lots of work in order to obtain enough results to support the projects.

But the most interesting and outstanding improvement this month is at the Crocodile Farm.

By the end of the year 2007, there was a particular interest offered by the government, and they invested a large amount of money to enhance the facilities making the place look dramatically better than what it used to be.

Now, at the beginning of 2008 the Government's investment has moved to next step, and with a new investment the project is moving to a whole new level. Our work on the project is one of the main reasons why there is now a new interest in the Crocodile Breeding Center. One might think that this investment would reduce the amount of work in the area, but this just seems to increase it!

Now we have to deliver accurate data, and this means working hard marking and checking the sex of the specimens that we have in the pools.

Exciting times are foreseen and we can only expect good things to happen!